The Weird World of Harry Potter Knock-Off Movies

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AABRA KA DAABRA VIDEO: • Why Bollywood’s Harry ...
Movies Reviewed:
The Mystical Adventures of Billy Owens (2008)
Billy Owens and the Secret of the Runes (2010)
The Adventures of Chris Fable (2010)
Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors (2008)
Aabra Ka Daabra (2004)
0:00 The Absurd Introduction
0:47 The Mystical Adventures of Billy Owens
14:44 Billy Owens and the Secret of the Runes
27:01 The Adventures of Chris Fable
30:19 Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors
31:44 Aabra Ka Daabra
35:01 hey. please like and share.

[@kimberleevroom2259]

The whole premise of the movie is interesting to me. Vikings sailed to Canada and landed in land-locked Alberta.

[@austinmcconnell]

M A G I C

[@DianeWilliamsEditz]

The Vikings wee magic so that is how. DUH

[@meakimon]

I guess it depends on how wide/deep the rivers are. Viking ships were specialised for sailing on rivers to surprise people who honestly didn't expect that. XD at least that's what I've been told.

[@austinkuklinski6354]

Oh oh oh it’s magic ya know

[@jacobhogan3208]

As a person from Newfoundland if it saves us from being associated with this film I’m all for it

[@JanhaviMishra]

My grandma’s Indian and when I was little, I was OBSESSED with Harry Potter. So when I visited her, she thought that it’d be a good idea if we both watched it together. She bought, what she thought was an HP film dvd, but it was actually ABRA KA DABRA. I remember just sitting there in utter confusion as we watched that movie together. And let me tell you, I still get nightmares about it. But gran thought it was good!

[@zarrg5611]

An actual example of 'we have Harry Potter at home'

[@sdtwirix1126]

At least your Gran had fun

[@JanhaviMishra]

@@zarrg5611 fr tho

[@RealBradMiller]

Not HP related, but me and my grandma would rent random movies and watch them together. One of my favorite memories is us watching Borat with absolutely no clue. I've never seen her laugh so hard as she did during the fight scene.

[@tanmaysingh267]

I have watched it too it was terrible

[@smileyp4535]

This makes me want to see a "no budget" film festival where famous and really good directors, writers, actors, etc and they make the best movies they can in a week or so with a budget of like 500$ tops

[@owensanfordstuff]

Would probably be really wankey experimental films, but I'd also like to see it😂

[@joddle23]

it's like chopped but with movies

[@foreignrepublic2122]

@@joddle23 cool ass idea

[@Ratstick58]

The it’s always sunny in Philadelphia pilot is what you’re after.

[@arbiter569]

Thats a great idea!

[@PolinaLee94]

I actually liked the concept of "Please" joke. Hero tries to open the door using complex spells, bribes, kodes for hours, but it turnes out he could have just asked the door politely. You know, like in HP with Salazar's medalion. Creature tried again and again, the goldwn trio tried again and again, but all it took was for Harry to say "open". Gamdalf and the gang were at moria doors for hours, but all it took was, again, to say simple "friend".

[@johnnye87]

"Please" got a chuckle out of me, I'm sure I was working with lowered expectations by that point but hey, it's a solid joke. Also laughed at "the three amoebas". Meathead bully got in a funnier insult than any of the witty comebacks the heroes came up with.

[@bricknolty5478]

See, I thought it was like "please and thank you are the magic words" type thing

[@snarglepop]

ah yes, billy's best friends: fun facts and allergies

[@FrenkTheJoy]

I always love in kids' movies where the bully will say ONE mildly rude thing and one of the "bullied" kids just brutally roasts the shit out of the "bully" and threatens to physically assault him.

[@cookiecat7759]

PLEASE LMAO

[@johnnye87]

They did a great twist on this on Thirty Rock: that's how Liz remembers school, but when she eventually gets her courage up to go to a reunion she finds out everyone hated and feared *her* because her withering put-downs were way meaner than anything the "bullies" were doing to deserve them.

[@Craigelz]

Full credit to Austin for watching over 180 minutes of torturous... not movie, not film, not story-telling... umm, for watching 180 minutes stop motion faeces that insults Mr Hanky. It's like panning sewerage for gold... and yet this doco on panning sewerage is somehow entertaining with the twist being that the "pan" was made of solid gold.

[@Thenuttyprofessor69]

​@@cookiecat7759 What it do now B O? crY?

[@714KH]

I had to rewatch that snakeskin-oil salesman scene again. It was absolutely brilliant. I've never seen a scene with this kind of chaotic energy before. That actor needs to be nominated already. I am 100% serious

[@Meetskink]

The poor guy, they clearly didn't tell him that his lines were a reference to modern major general, he did his best

[@thesovietvorona1007]

Bro that snake skin oil salesman put his SOUL into that part.🤣

[@nowster]

And a lot of Pirates of Penzance too.

[@Hy-Brasil]

@@nowster yep! if you don't know the original material i can see why it would be impressive lol

[@xliquidflames]

Do you think maybe the scripts of the first two were written by the kids? That's how it seems. They watched Harry Potter and then asked their parents if they could make a movie just like it.

[@lawrencecalablaster568]

Honestly I always wanted to do that.

[@tomrogue13]

@@lawrencecalablaster568 let's do it now

[@TheDeadGunslinger]

@@tomrogue13 i'm in

[@JackCats0]

@@TheDeadGunslinger I'll start: Honey Puddy is a soon to be eleven-year-old boy living with his aunt, his uncle, and their financially stable daughter who is also a lawyer, Shelly. Honey's aunt and uncle are always rude to Honey, as they dislike his name. "Why would your mother name you that!" "You should be disappointed in yourself!" To punish Honey, they lock him in the basement. Honey hasn't seen sunlight in 3 years. One evening, on Honey's eleventh birthday, Shelly comes to visit Honey. "I'm sorry I don't visit you more often," Says Shelly, "Our aunt and uncle would lock me here too if they caught me with you, and I need to finish law school!" Just then, the door to the basement swings wide open. A eight-foot middle aged man steps through the doorway and walks down the basement stairs to approach Honey and Shelly. He looks at Honey and says...

[@peculiarpangolin4638]

@@JackCats0 "Oi, you! Yea, you there, love! Yer a legally distinct spellcaster thar, Honey! Arrrrgh, it's off to pirate warlock school where we follow the Old Ones of the Deep Sea, ARRRRRRRh [insert Dagon praising here]!"

[@ChristopherFazio13]

Hey there! I’m actually the kid who played fake Ron in the Billy Owen’s movies, and I thought this review was freakin HILARIOUS. I would be happy to answer your questions about it hahahah Anyway, I wanted to let you know there are TWO more movies with this same group of people - little ghost grabbers / ghost trap (like ghost busters), and Junior high Spy (like agent Cody banks). Would love to hear your reviews!

[@calthyechild]

OMG Fake Ron! Tell me, did you on set feel like you knew what was supposed to be happening with the story? What motivated the creation of the Billy Owen movies? Of the three franchise knock offs, which is your favorite original: wizards, ghost busters or spies? And which is your favorite that you were involved in creating? I'm sad that you have only one KZbin subscriber so Ima subscribe to you even though you have no content. We love/hated the Billy Owen movies. Thank you for your sacrifice.

[@JohnSmith-xg9wx]

What did they pay you?

[@mitch-lawless]

Why were these movies made?

[@ChristopherFazio13]

@@reyalfa18 it was actually a really fun thing to do. I think I was between 10 and 12 years old for the filming of both (back to back summers) so it was sort of like a fun summer camp.

[@ChristopherFazio13]

@@calthyechild if I recall the script pages would come a few days before we shot the scenes, so we weren’t usually sure what the plan was overall. This changed for the second Billy Owens as well as the other movies I was a part of. Of the ones you mentioned, I liked Junior High Spy the best. There was actually an unfinished one that had a more “original” vibe that I thought would have been the “best” of the bunch.

[@justinweber4977]

I will say, the idea of a version of Hermione that just starts everything with "Did you know that-" like she's just so eager and happy to tell you this piece of trivia she's learned, as opposed to her actual personality does sound entertaining at least.

[@Niobesnuppa]

It's basically just me when I was a kid. Everyone got to learn random and useless trivia when they were around me, wether they wanted to or not.

[@TRtherocknroller]

The funny thing is: Aabra Kadabra could very well be worked into Potter Lore

[@lumpstergash]

Yeah maybe it could be in the goblet of fire but I don't remember if a magic school from India was in there.

[@TRtherocknroller]

@@lumpstergash there are a bunch of Magic schools that wheren’t

[@ethanmccormack9561]

Well that would be for JK to decide. I doubt she would agree.

[@darcybhaiwala7057]

That's it. It's canon

[@Directed2212]

Abra Kadabra is the spell that the wizards use to make a rabbit come out of the hat right?

[@LarkTheLucky]

I’d like to mention that, as a person who was born and raised in Alberta, Alberta is completely land locked from the ocean. The closets ocean is in BC, roughly 15 hours away from central Alberta. There’s no way The Vikings landed in Alberta, and I think that fact makes this movie 10x better.

[@yikes2540]

They sailed in on the oil, duh

[@Ebbagull]

I was first going to comment something about how the Vikings were so effective because they had light-weight shallow ships which they picked up, and carried over land in order to access inland rivers. ...but then I looked at a map 😂 Wow, that's a long way to go!

[@vaseemsherief9280]

Uhhhh it's magic DUHHHHHHHH

[@zeroattentiongaming820]

Hey are you gonna argue with the logic of Viking wizards with the power of atrocious CG?

[@kateluvya]

When he said the part about viking magic in the town, I quite loudly exclaimed "IN ALBERTA?!?!" My husband was nearby and came by to see what the problem was. Born and raised Alberta too. I thought it was a neat fact that the movie was filmed there and the viking thing threw me hard.

[@peculiarpangolin4638]

[16:13, disinterested] "We have a winner. Ladies and gentlemen, even a boy can win. He's won a bowl, a bowl. A thimble. Now beat it, kid you're bothering me... But what? You got your prize. Now get outta here before you make me mad" Perfection.

[@austinmcconnell]

Shenmue vibes.

[@animatrix1490]

I thought he said "thin bowl" which makes even less sense

[@peculiarpangolin4638]

@@animatrix1490 As did I until about the 10th time I played the clip to get the quote right, hence the edit.

[@iamjayrts1846]

He said calmly

[@TheVelvetTV_Riesenglied]

*even a bully can win is what he's saying I think

[@SpokoR3]

Abra Kadabra is not just any random Harry Potter knock-off. It transcends time. This is the movie that travelled backwards in the space-time continuum and inspired J.K Rowling to pen down the Harry Potter books.

[@JohnBradford14]

I will admit, the part where he has to say "Please" to open the door got a genuine chuckle out of me. He makes a face where he's just trying to be a smart-ass to the forces of magic and they're all "No, actually you're right."

[@alexsaros9155]

Holy shit, my friend and I watched The Adventures of Chris Fable 10+ years ago when we were in like 3rd grade. We got it from a Redbox cos we noticed it had the Harry Potter font and I guess that was enough to sell us. Years after the fact I remembered this weird ass low budget movie we watched one night, but I could never remember what it was called, and for years I’ve been trying to find this movie about a kid who lived in a junkyard and fought giant robots with the title in the Harry Potter font. Finally, my search is over.

[@EpicGhostShadow]

W

[@peterjameslake]

I feel this.

[@nromerob]

I had the same experience! Red Box just randomly had those low budget movies and my dad would sometimes randomly bring them home for us.

[@Joshlama]

+

[@dominicedwards16]

Lmao same. My buddy’s dad picked it up for when we had a sleepover when we were 10. That movie was so fucking funny to watch

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

I think that weird sneeze moment was meant to have CGI added and they forgot, lol.

[@austinmcconnell]

That was my assumption, too 😂

[@virave]

*VFX

[@Nirrrina]

I thought maybe they were talking about the volcano now having toxic snot. But special effects does make more sense.

[@randybobandy4000]

I love how Roddy Piper was acting like an 80 year old geriatric, when he was only in his 50s at the time. R.I.P Rowdy Roddy Piper, he was a great entertainer.

[@luisz222]

I just remember him as da maniac in always sunny in philadelphia.

[@creativia6639]

Please, do a video about Aabra Ka Daabra, it genuinely seems like a weird-fun movie and I'm interested in the plot ^^ Maybe if there are people talking about it, somebody will make English subtitles for it, and that would be fun :D

[@austinmcconnell]

Already out! Check my latest video.

[@TheMoviePlanet]

There are English subtitles for it.

[@imsotiredofthiscrap2341]

billy repeating “calm down guys!” while everyone stands staring at him in silence is so hilarious

[@misteryA555]

The dialogue clip you showed made perfect sense to me. The girl starts talking about baby snakes not being able to hold back because the bully is a kid and therefore less likely to hold back the beating he's dishing out than an adult would What a terrible friend though. No, I will not run away with you, or stand up for you, I'll just tell you that you're definitely going to be brutalized to the highest degree. I am very smart

[@hcstubbs3290]

I thought it was cause he got called a baby snake, and she was trying to make him feel better. Like, being a baby snake makes you a badass. But what kind of insult is 'you're a baby snake' anyway. 😅

[@zaidlacksalastname4905]

Extremely smart

[@zaidlacksalastname4905]

@@hcstubbs3290 same

[@b0neless437]

It makes sense but it's very convoluted

[@mikester4896]

She's basically C-3PO then

[@SolGatoMan]

Once I found this book in my school library names "Barry Trotter" It was had almost the same storyline as harry potter just with different character names and places

[@AmazingKevinWClark]

For Billy Owen's, the baby snake dialogue seems more random than it is. I think fake Hermione is comparing the bully being dangerous to a baby snake. It's more absurd writing than random.

[@TyroneBruinsmaFilms]

Fun fact: there's a 1986 film called Troll (which would spawn the unofficial sequel Troll 2, yes the bad one) with a character called Harry Potter Jnr and the creators have tried making sequels based on that characters name

[@MadsOcto7]

Terry Pratchetts "Sourcery" was published in '88 and features a wizard in a school for wizards. The school has a great hall similar to the great hall at Hogwarts. The rooms within the school changes location like they do in Hogwarts. Their library has a forbidden section. The school has a talking hat. The wizard finds out that they can talk to snakes.

[@MadsOcto7]

The book "the Master and Margarita" fully published in '67 features a young woman who becomes a witch. She flies on a broom, then flies in a car, sees a chess set with pieces that moves by themselves But all that is in effort to best the evil sorcerer "He Who Must Not Be Named". Sound familiar?

[@juliiju0484]

There is also DC's Timothy Hunter who is literally Harry Potter before Harry Potter.

[@davidnotonstinnett]

A certified Nilbog moment

[@WatanabeNoTsuna.]

@@MadsOcto7 So, my takeaway from this thread is that Harry Potter is the most ripped-off rip-off ever... 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@mongoose1618]

RIP Roddy Piper. Man had been through some tough times around the time he acted that Billy Owens movie. So he must've been looking for anything to cover atleast some of his hospital bills.

[@alexmaw3600]

what happened to him?

[@howardmctroy3303]

Roddy had Lymphoma around 2006, but he died of heart failure in 2015. He was definitely a true wrestler, the kind who put his body through it.

[@cherylalikhani5957]

He was a great wrestler and decent actor given the kind of roles he was given.

[@kellijones6481]

@@cherylalikhani5957They Live is one of my personal favorites, I don’t care what critics say, that movie is awesome!

[@Lord_Baphomet_]

One thing that I’ve always wondered is how the magic words for these spells are created… and how did they know to use wands… like was there just some old wizard scientist standing in a field screaming nonsense while holding a twig?

[@lennartnubl5193]

I love the fact that you put more effort into understanding the first movie than they did into making it xD.

[@sunnex474]

I died from cringe when Billy and discount Ron started talking about how they would run as fast as they could to get away from bullies

[@adonaiblackwood7172]

.discount Ron 😂 ☠️ 💯

[@thecapitalg]

"Discount Ron" 😭💀💀

[@safe-keeper1042]

Oh come on, that was adorable 😅! "Discount Ron, tho" 💀

[@Z_E_B_O]

The Billy movies have that weird feeling of a selfmade thing but with the lines read so badly and from a script that it could as well be a modern adult swim joke thing. also they sort of look nostalgic. It feels real tho ,because If I made such a film myself itd probably look like this too lol.

[@jackeroni216]

are you canadian as well? i felt the same thing watching the clips.

[@Z_E_B_O]

​@@jackeroni216 I'm not canadian, just noticed a similarity to old/bad tv-stuff I saw as a kid in like 200X.

[@theravenpirate4744]

@@jackeroni216 As a Canadian I feel like I've probably met these kids

[@jackeroni216]

@@Z_E_B_O ah, i just found the town really familiar and nostalgic

[@craigfox1967]

Thank you. I really enjoyed watching you recount your suffering of watching these movies. It was like group therapy where someone just made a breakthrough and can talk about their trauma. Stay strong.

[@rastaoneeye]

I’m glad this popped up on my suggested list, subscribed and couldn’t be more happier. Have a great weekend

[@BazukinBelyugovich]

I have to hand it to you, having the strength and patience to watch Billy Owens 4 TIMES is genuinely commendable, I think I would die of cringe after like half an hour sounds like a 10/10 film

[@Sir_Zombie1ted]

Just this few images and him giving a summary of it, made me want to puke. Funny thing, I am a Cameroonian in Africa and we have plenty of pretty lazy movies, but this... Boy. And he watched it 4 times? Note to self: Watching this Billy owens thing is worse than death, avoid it at all cost.

[@johncleese-mogg365]

I guess my standards have been very drastically lowered by these movies, but that '3 amoebas' joke made me laugh unreasonably hard

[@austinmcconnell]

They do have a way of breaking you.

[@peculiarpangolin4638]

Me too, I thought it was an actually really thoughtful joke until he explained it.

[@zaidlacksalastname4905]

@@austinmcconnell I love the "get it"s. They kill the humor but from the corpse some ironic humor is reborn

[@ajerqureshi6411]

For me, the joke that got me thanks to this movie's low standards was the "Please is the magic word" bit.

[@raydhen8840]

@@zaidlacksalastname4905 Dude basically using "Sharing one braincell" joke before it was even popularized

[@calowenby1654]

This is one of the best videos I've seen recently! I'm gonna have to check more of your content out!

[@howdywolfman]

This was so entertaining lol. I would love to see a follow-up video taking a look at all of the bigger budget (sorta) knock-off Harry Potter films from the late aughts/early 2010s. Back when studios were obsessed with putting out films based on YA Fantasy/Action novel series: like the Percy Jackson films, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, Eregon, Alex Rider, etc!

[@H3liosphan]

Would be amazing to try and find and interview the actors and actresses from Billy Owens, ask them wot the hell it was all about, how it ended up being widely distributed etc, would imagine they're in their 20s by now. Did any of them go into acting properly? Guessing it was their parents getting them into something nobody around them had any experience in, that had a passing friendship with Roddy? Who knows.

[@Yesica1993]

I'd be curious too!

[@awkyumnik]

I knew the kid who played Billy Owens, he was really into acting when he was young. His parents were supportive and i think ended up contributing as producers or something after the fact. Pretty exciting opportunity for a small town kid despite the low budget and production value. We have a signed copy of the DVD lol, I'm surprised people have heard of it outside of our community

[@emerson-biggons7078]

@@awkyumnik that is remarkably wholesome for a movie.

[@twilliamspro]

I expect it got widely distributed because Roddy Piper

[@Coopersville]

It was made by a production company called Skyline Films in Petrolia, Ontario; where Roddy Piper lived around the time. Most of their films were shot with a budget of like $2000-2500CAN, and were eventually bought by Lionsgate for about the same price who released them to Video On Demand. They also made a few horror films like "Study Hell", "Dark Fields", and a ghost-hunting documentary called "Real Ghosts".

[@mikeymotionstories]

I can't believe Warner Bros ripped-off all these movies!

[@Roobar_Plays]

Thanks for the sacrifices you've made! Greatly appreciated!

[@mplwy]

So far, Roddy reminds me more of Mad-Eye. Btw, he also did a low budget zombie movie in Parkersburg, WV. My cousin lives there and I'm about an hour away. They had a casting call (I guess that's what it's called) for extras but you had to do your own zombie makeup. We thought about it but decided it was too much hassle in the dead of Winter to be a zombie extra in a B (or lower) movie. Lol! I need to look it up. Can't imagine how inconsistent the makeup was since the extras did their own, even with the rules they gave. Lol!

[@MegCazalet]

2.5 hours is short for the early 2000s Bollywood movies I watched at the time. I was in college. One night I started watching a movie with some friends, went to a party on campus, had a great time, came back to the room, and the movie was still going on.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

I have a wonderful Tamil movie on dvd. It is a Jane Austen inspired drama called Kathukondain Kathukondain.

[@troytellsit493]

Random question but did you end up getting a job in the field you went to college for or no?

[@MegCazalet]

@@troytellsit493 Well, I guess. Majored in History and Art History and became a writer.

[@muhammadeisa1459]

@@MegCazalet how did you become a writer?

[@adityavardhanjain]

Lmao. I used to love watching Hari Puttar as a kid. It actually has alot of famous Indian actors in it. It's a decent movie. Alot of Indians not knowing about Home alone really thought it was quite clever and funny at the time. I knew of those movies and still kinda enjoyed it.

[@fermintenava5911]

It's just so funny, because Chris Colombus, the director of the first two Harry Potter-movies, also directed Home Alone.

[@adityavardhanjain]

@@fermintenava5911 oh my god. I never thought of that. Ig the director was really a fan of Chris Colombus. Hahahaha.

[@smilingladka]

Well, I saw Home Alone when I was 5 years old, even though I lived in one of the remotest areas of India. How? That's an interesting story. So the local edition of a big newspaper company used to organise "children films festival" where they used to book a cinema hall for a week distributing free tickets to children, and showed hindi dubbed Hollywood children movies like, "Dr Dolittle", "Home Alone", "Jingle all the way" etc. One whole cinema hall filled with children screaming out loud when Joe Pesci's head was burnt 🤣🤣 Good times ❤️

[@adityavardhanjain]

@@smilingladka sounds intense fun!

[@Al-Ex-North-Star]

Can I find these movies with English subtitles?

[@jonnyjynxer8315]

Marianne Wiest/ myers googling the producer of chris fable brings up a murder police investigation? wtf

[@rynngrey3722]

Dude if Austin does more cinema critique vids I'd be so happy. Especially if he explains why certain concepts or director choices don't work/could be implemented better. He actually has experience making films, and it'd be cool to get a better peak behind the process!

[@samanthamenard8658]

So what's funny about this, is my boyfriend just randomly picked this and said here you might like this! Watching the review of the first Billy Owen movie we noticed that it was filmed at my old school and in and around my home town 😂😂

[@weirdshrimpnumber9755]

So did you ever fight giant robots in a junkyard with a camera going 125 miles per hour while filming the fight?

[@samanthamenard8658]

@@weirdshrimpnumber9755 wrong bad movie 😅 so no

[@abrodeur]

where was it flimed because I play soccer in sprit river AB as a kid and I dont remembert any kind major bodies of water like @4:22

[@samanthamenard8658]

@@abrodeur it was filmed in Ontario 😅 the credits say where

[@abrodeur]

@@samanthamenard8658 I was try to figure it out based on what was just in this video didnt try to find the orignal. The trees and house differently felt more easter canada then wester. I did look up par-tee rentals from the sequal and saw it was southwest ontaio. Its different dispointment give how close my home town was to the actuly sprit river.

[@wackyruss]

Y’all need to check out Tanya Grotter - the Russian knock of HP. It’s a series of books beginning with Таня Гроттер и магический контрабас (Tanya Grotter & the Magical Flying Bass). Instead of a broom she flies around on a giant violin (double bass). She attends the School for Unimpressive Witches Who Want to Improve Their Witchcraft. Apparently J.K. Rowling threatened to sue if the books were ever translated to English. The Russian author Dmitry Yemetz swears the likeness to HP is all coincidental and Tanya Grotter is a totally original story based on Slavic Russian Folklore!

[@futaba-tian]

As a person who read (and still owns) all of the books in this series, I can safely say that only the first book was a copy of Harry Potter. And not a complete one, mind you. Starting with the second book, the story and the characters are completely unique. There is great lore, really nice humor, a proper magic system (that CrimsonRogue would be proud of), and yes, tons of Slavic folklore. Heck, one of Tanya's friends is the grandson of Baba Yaga, and she herself teaches at this school! All in all, I'd say that if you give Tanya a chance, you might enjoy her story as much if even not more than Harry's. Dragonball (drakonobol) matches were more exciting than Quidditch, at least.

[@wackyruss]

@@futaba-tian Finally a Russian person that knows about Tanya Grotter! I found the Tanya Grotter books in a Russian bookstore in Houston, Texas, USA. Nobody in America can read Cyrillics so didn’t find Tanya Grotter as amusing as I did! Also I play the contrabass (upright bass) so the idea of a girl flying on a giant bass and being a witch is just ridiculously and endlessly amusing to me! I lived in Kazakhstan for over five years and NOBODY has heard of Tanya Grotter in Kazakhstan even though they all speak Russian in Kazakhstan! Go figure!

[@futaba-tian]

@@wackyruss aw, it's such a shame that none of Tanya's books ever got a proper translation (only fan-made one that I can't vouch for) 😔 It's quite a unique example of what was initially a knockoff turning into its own franchise. It also had Gury Pupper (Гурий Пуппер), which was a pretty fun version of Harry 😁 Which of Tanya's books was your favorite, btw? I LOVE number 8 (Таня Гроттер и Ботинки Кентавра - Tanya Grotter and Centaur's Boots).

[@wackyruss]

@@futaba-tian I definitely like number 8 as well. I grew up reading Piers Anthony’s Chronicles of Xanth series and there were a ton of Centaurs in those books. Centaurs are pretty much my favorite mythological creature! I also like the first Tanya Grotter book because I play the contrabass. :)

[@CALIBA88]

sounds more like terry prattchet than rowling, wich is a very good thing.

[@carlkolchack3012]

Ty for all u do. I re watch for inspiration

[@tylergrouser2186]

I just wanted to let you know you have some of the most well thought out and interesting content on KZbin. I’ve never seen you jump on a bandwagon. Keep it up brother, I wish you all the best

[@Robokoop4000]

Billy Owens could beat Harry Potter in a magic fight!

[@Tiberon098]

Probably because he’d actually fight him.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

because unlike Harry Potter he actually casts spells in his first movie

[@peculiarpangolin4638]

@@Tiberon098 Given his track record, he'd just kill him!

[@JustAnAverageItalian]

Nah Harry's got his mother's protection. he can't be killed by magic until he's 17. Even afterwards he's still a skilled wizard. Also Harry would probably die laughing at the VFX so... you've actually got a point.

[@JusticeKorsgaard]

I've actually seen the Billy Owens movies before. Roddy's line "you got chocolate cake and ice cream waitin' fir ya" is something I quote often

[@CloudsAndCoffins]

I have this very vivid memory of reading a Harry Potter knockoff series when I was very young that, shameful to admit, I actually quite enjoyed. I believe it was called "The Charlie Bone' series, named after the main character just like good old HP. Not sure how many books there are, I read at least 3. I might have been like 10 years old but I can still recall all the times I was like 'wow this is really similar to HP." Now I kind of want to see if I can find it and re-read it lol

[@EnvelopeWizard]

really loved the attitude and vibe you were bringing and tried to sub but then realized i already was keep up the good work

[@BMarie774]

As a kid, me and my friends would pretend to be wizards at hogwarts or on some “stand by me” like adventure. This film..is like someone was able to get in our heads and film it from our imaginations perspective. It genuinely feels like what I’d have been picturing and what we would have been doing in this sort of role play game.

[@saadamansayyed]

So, Indian here, Aabra ka Dabra got me super curious and so I started researching. Stat wise it did eh I guess? It made like a few hundred thousand dollars of something, which is like good for a children's movie in India. But the main thing was the actors. So... Most of the actors are like really popular actors, like the most popular comedy actors (like Jon Stewart level), and most of the cast was surprisingly A-list. The music is by a really popular Indian singer (sort of as popular as Justin Timberlake for a comparison) and the whole movie had like very on the nose product placement due to the Camlin guys, which are like a huge stationery megacorp in India. Oh, and I found this summary on Wikipedia. I know it's poorly written, but take a look: Shanu (Athik Naik), a 12-year old boy lives with his mother Shivani Singh (Shweta Tiwari) and father Rahul Singh. His father, Rahul Singh is a magician who is expert in doing Houdini Tricks. Once doing such a trick, he locks himself in a closed box and drops the box in sea but he failed to come out of the box and disappears mysteriously. The sudden disappearance of Rahul drives Shanu and his mother to live in worse conditions. People used to tease Shanu saying 'Son of loser'. However Shanu wins a competition by which he gets admission in any school he wishes. He takes admission in Abra Ka Dabra: School Of Magic where he meets Pinky (Hansika Motwani) and Limbu (Anupam Kher). He also meets the strict principle of Abra Ka Dabra school, Rang Birangi also called as RB (Nupur Mehta). He studies many magic tricks in school and becomes an expert magician. While in school he comes to know that RB used to go somewhere at night in the forest. Shanu and his friends chase RB by eating an invisibility pill given by Limbu where he finds his father being imprisoned by RB. RB wants Rahul, Shanu's father to make Amarsanjivani (An Immortality Potion) for her which he made once when he was a teacher in Abra Ka Dabra School. RB sees Shanu and injects him with poison. Rahul, to save his son, continues to make the potion. Meanwhile he cures his son, Shanu and both stand against RB and a good magical fight happens, in which RB gets defeated promising to come back for revenge and dies. Shanu takes her magical wand and give it to Dilbaug Singh (Satish Kaushik) the guardian of Shanu. Everyone celebrates the strict-free environment in Abra Ka Dabra. Meanwhile the magical wand of RB disappears magically leaving the audience in suspense and at last Zulu, the demon-winged servant of RB questioned about comeback of RB and mystery of disappearance of magical wand pointing at the audience. And thus the movie ends

[@Leo0718]

I love the impulse from the Wikipedia writer to indicate that the magical fight was good.

[@krakal]

you’ve won my subscription 🎉 can’t wait for more

[@cardinalhamneggs5253]

If Fake Ron's sword is supposed to be a Viking weapon, based on the shape of the tip (straight on one side, curved on the other) I think it's a seax, which means he's holding it the wrong way around. The straight edge of a seax is the cutting edge.

[@rexdoom3848]

I appreciate the fact that Austin dresses up for his videos now.

[@Aanike09]

I like to imagine he just had the costume

[@klaojungwiwattanaporn6927]

Austin is going through his Jenny Nicholson Arc

[@greenhowie]

Give it a year and he'll be rivalling PhilosophyTube for most extravagant costumes

[@rexdoom3848]

@@greenhowie Oh my. I just started watching her recently, and the outfit In The transhumanism video caught me off guard.

[@FigmentsofFiction]

When Austin is talking about Harry Potter knock-offs, he's wearing the robe, but when he's talking about movies that just stole the name, he's wearing normal clothes

[@Malkamok]

You actually sat through all that. Madman. Have my like and share

[@cowbatboots282]

Phenomenal content as always.

[@dashtoroya2838]

Well speaking of indian knock-off. There is an Indian tv show called "Shaka laka boom boom" which is a household name during 2000-2004, watched by many people, it's the story about a guy finding a pencil which can create whatever he draws. In the third season of that show the main character enters a dimensions into magical world and he attends the Hogwarts of that dimension called "jadoo high"(which is magic high) the enter session focus on his adventure in the magic school until in the end he is graduated from that school and he is thrown out of the dimension to the year 2022 but since this series was airing in 2004 so they didn't predicted the covid pandemic.

[@BenJover]

Lol chalkzone much?

[@dirtylevel]

6:23 I can guess with 100% confidence that the director just said "will put something in post" which of course they never did

[@imera4180]

This video randomly showed up on my feed, had some time to spare so I thought I'd just watch it. I love your review and your reactions, and I don't know what else you post but I'm going to subscribe :P Movies sounds horrible and I feel sorry for you, but I so understand the "I bought it I should at least try it" mentality, and it gives you wonderful material to work with

[@titanraven]

19:39 fake Ron nods like he understood that gibber😂😂😂😂😂

[@crosseightyeight]

My wife walked into the room during the part with Aabra Ka Daabra and said she had seen commercials for it when she was a kid in India. So the film also had a marketing budget!

[@danielramsey6141]

That is just Amazing to me! :D

[@SlapstickGenius23]

That’s pretty cool. Bollywood seems to make its own countless mockbusters of Hollywood stuff. The unofficial Hindi language Tarzan films seem to be rather popular with guys who watch fellow popcorn flicks.

[@RiyaAdvani7]

How are u indian & not heard about that movie? I thought it was a common childhood trauma among all indian kids 😂

[@linnpatterson222]

It's weird that in the Billy Owens movies, Ron's expy's recurring trait is that he's always sneezing when Ron wasn't ever like that in the original. This might be the knowledge of A Very Potter Musical in me, but wouldn't it make a _little_ more sense for the fake Ron to have the personality trait of "eats a lot of the runtime"?

[@brodrickbaker]

11:38 this sir, is the most real conversation that I’ve ever seen between two children put to film. *slaw claps*

[@clariealenko]

IDK the fake Hermione of the first listed movie going all "Did you know" made me think about Olaf from Frozen when he goes "Did you know" in Froze 2 when Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf are traveling towards the Magic Forest and I laughed so hard

[@athenagreen5390]

Just for reference, as I'm not sure it was clear. The 'Snake Oil Salesman' bit (the guy in red who wouldn't shut the fuck up) was a parody of 'Modern Major General' an absolute bop from some musical about pirates or something. Except this version was incomprehensible, at half the speed of what it is supposed to be, and was not charming/impressive.

[@jazzie_wolf]

Pirates of Penzance! It’s an opera. Once he started ranting, I thought it sounded familiar! The idea of ripping it off was kinda clever and whimsical, the actor should have been told about it!

[@wyredaftsquall]

Kinda reminds me of a guy from a Sega Game Gear promotional video

[@ominousintrusivethoughts3947]

Dude your channels so good and I just think the algorithm's pissed because you have such a variety

[@austinmcconnell]

I dunno, man. The only thing I can ask is that folks watch the vids all the way, like them, share them around, and with any luck I'll eventually get some kind of a bump. Thanks again.

[@ominousintrusivethoughts3947]

@@austinmcconnell hey I gotchu

[@windysun9895]

im sorry, i couldn't finish the video. you are goated for watching those movies

[@kitbradley2689]

"Rowdy Roddy Piper is this movie's Dumbledore" is one of the most amazing sentences ever uttered in the English language.

[@majestic_meghan]

Austin you’re my favorite KZbinr. I rarely see someone put so much time and effort into research, add so much humor and intelligent commentary, and seem so happy to be doing it. Thank you for bringing us all so much joy!

[@austinmcconnell]

Thanks, Meg. This comment made my day. 😊

[@mrwatney3236]

34:07 That was supposed to be Peeves. I remember how some Indian Potterheads were telling there was a Peeves in Abra ka Dabra but not in the official adaptation.

[@empoleonmaster6709]

Who's Peeves? I read all the books but don't remember that character.

[@prakhar9473]

Neat

[@prakhar9473]

@@empoleonmaster6709 the poltergeist

[@MrPurpleDecay]

Hahahahaha my word bruv, the "not worth it bro" just has me broken, thanx for adding that, I was that guy who was gonna watch them, until that warning haha

[@iammixedup]

The last two films are wild!! The ‘I’m fascinated’ line you said got me laughing hard 😂 caught me off guard

[@simplyixia3683]

Okay, the first one-I live in Alberta and November 11th is Remembrance Day. There would be a lot of World War memorial stuff happening at school and a cultural solemnity on that day. People would have poppies pinned to their coats and blouses. I’m only 50% sure this was actually filmed in November. The river should be more frozen. Looks like October. It also looks like it was filmed in Chestermere? Lol. This was a fascinating watch.

[@c.julietofcampjupiter8557]

That would actually be a more interesting movie

[@lisahoshowsky4251]

Ahaha, I had the same thought! I’m from Ontario and when you’re in grade school especially 11/11 is a big deal, not that it isn’t as an adult, but usually you’re doing activities geared towards it in school and everyone is definitely wearing a poppy.

[@Dlindz5906]

Apparently it was filmed by a company in Sarnia Ontario over 3 years or so (according to the local paper anyway) - maybe they just skipped Remembrance day completely

[@Gunkarran]

As an indian who didn't have access to Harry Potter movies and haven't seen a single one yet, Aabra ka daabra was my childhood and I love it 💀

[@heeeeeresrossy]

This channel is a diamond in the rough. And boy am I glad I found it! 👌

[@s.o.4339]

I love how this magical adventure of whimsicalness comes in a good old fashion high school film-class sd-camera-documentation look.

[@greenhowie]

Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody deserves to be a movie. Seriously. It's weirdly prophetic about the downfall of the HP fandom and can be genuinely funny at times in a teenage kinda way. Would be a good drinking movie.

[@markgoldspink5109]

Downfall? They're still selling tons of merch and the new game will be massive. Not my demographic, but I can'r move for the stuff.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Imagine a Harry Potter knockoff that dropped Hogwartz but still had a lot of Magic Learning. Bobby Caser documents himself trying to learn magic, without any help. Alone. Has to basically make up his own terminologies and figure out the details through trial and error.

[@cookiebeefstuk7941]

28:17 isn't that sword on the cover from the percy jackson movies (which are admittedly terrible)

[@AAFREAK]

Ok, so far I'm gonna kill time watching Chris Fable (because you had me at Pilgrim's Progress) and Aabra Ka Daabra. Both are up online now.

[@AmusedWalrus]

I don't know what's worse, The Mystical Adventures of Billy Owens, or the fact you managed to watch it FOUR TIMES. I'm gonna be real with you dog, this isn't worth the $0.30 in adsense .

[@pinoybear1855]

I'm glad you watched these movies because several times during your video I thought: "I can't take this anymore."

[@wheath1n]

Runic Harry Potter would actually be super dope. I love the idea of Viking magic and how it manifests and how it would be trained. I think I would want to avoid wands and go full Rune magic though.

[@kevinforslund52]

23:38 lol. Your hilarious, love that your acting like a funny sarcastic professor. Can you review and react to more bad movies. I would love to watch more :D

[@GhostPuddle]

That whole performance at 29:10 is unironically great! You can tell he enjoyed every single sentence of that scene. Absolutely hilarious.

[@timtreetwats]

Yeah I would watch that actor again. He really gives it his all.

[@NijosoSefzaps]

Yeah! This is a quality monologue!

[@JamesOKeefe-US]

"I'm not clear on all the details because...the movie isn't...." 🤣🤣🤣 Austin's delivery trumps virtually every actor in this movie 😂

[@safe-keeper1042]

Some of the dialogue felt really natural, at least. I actually liked the scene where they're planning to just run to the pawn shop. It was just so incredibly cute.

[@zoyadulzura7490]

5:58 "Actually if you factor in the leap year continuum"--they really couldn't put in a *bit* more effort into that line.

[@Crowbars2]

This camcorder filmed movie has such a weird, but familiar look and feel about it. Like, I'm watching some weird home movie, that just happens to be a film. Like, there are no sets, the SFX are windows movie maker level. It's so weird. It's like a film that someone tried to make for a high school film studies class for extra credit. I wonder if anyone has ever made a decent film on a camcorder, I feel like that "feel" of something filmed on a camcorder could be put to good use with someone who knows what they're doing.

[@SamAronow]

That depends on whether you consider Harmony Korine’s _Trash Humpers_ to be a good movie. One thing is certain though: they made it, they made it, and they didn’t fake it.

[@tatehildyard5332]

I can list a few. David Lynch’s Inland Empire, Steven Soderberg’s Full Frontal, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration, Lars Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark, Hal Hartley’s Faye Grimm, Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig’s Nights and Weekends, debatably Sean Baker’s Tangerine (that was technically with an Iphone and not a camcorder but it uses a lot of the same camcorder cinema style visual grammar).

[@Skp1452]

@@tatehildyard5332 28 days later

[@peculiarpangolin4638]

24:01 OH, GOODNESS!!! Billy just erased fake Quirrell from existence without any qualms! Edit: Then they just knocked fake Malfoy off a tower to his death! There's no way they're not getting prosecuted for that! And they can't magic their way out of it any more!

[@nickpaine2767]

This video helped me relax and sleep with the comfort of childhood with an odd twist

[@MADKapo]

24:12 Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Dir. Taika Waititi

[@godsfilmmaker8863]

It’s movies like this that really make you appreciate that at least if this movie were made now, it would probably be on a gimbal with shallow depth of field, some kind of actual dialogue capture, passable 3D effects and distributed free on the internet, lol. I found this riveting, thank you!

[@dyscotopia]

Well, you see Austin. There are grant programs for home made media here in Canada, but they need to be somewhat equitably distributed amongst the provinces or they get testy. Alas, our film industries are predominantly in BC, Quebec and Ontario. Alberta is not known as a hotbed of cultural industries so if you're the only production to drunkenly apply that year, surprise, you get to make a movie!

[@butwhytho4858]

I literally, actually almost died when u cut to trying to explain the magic door. It was a poor choice to eat a dry cookie right before that time.

[@joshuadunford3171]

Fun fact- Spirt River is a real town in Canada…That is Landlocked in Alberta! So the Vikings much have had airplanes if they landed there